Lawrie HunterKochi University of Technology

http://lawriehunter.com

Ears to hear with:The Instructed writing center6th Symposium on Writing Centers in Asia

 Obirin College, TOKYO

No need to take notes (:^0)

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Ears to hear with: The instructed writing center

SUMMARY

Within the negotiations of a writing center consultation, the mentor can choose from a wide range of frames for support, and from a number of degrees of abstractness as well. Many of the strategies that the mentor might select, and many of the knowledge/skill perspectives as well, require that the client have specific items of knowledge and skill in place. This paper provides tentative, in-place answers to the problem of the client unprepared to received much of the help that the mentor might offer, in the form a curriculum that might be a requirement for certain writing center services.

ABSTRACT Within the negotiations of a writing center consultation, the mentor can choose from a wide range of frames for support, including rhetorical approaches, cohesion and readability considerations, and techniques for using model language from existing papers, to mention but a few. Many of the strategies that the mentor might select, and many of the knowledge/skill perspectives as well, require that the client have specific items of knowledge and skill in place.  This paper presents an existing long-in-use curriculum intended as intensive preparation/requirement for extensive writing center consultation for scholarship PhD students in engineering and management/policy at a Japanese university.  The content of the curriculum is based on client needs, in particular accessible writing, sound argument and production strategy. For each these three needs, a series of interventions are provided. For accessible writing, knowledge and skills for production of readable text and explicit cohesion are acquired through instruction, exercises and mentor scenario simulations. Similar grounding is provided for the crafting of clarity and logicality as elements of sound argument. The primary elements of production strategy (mimicry, conformity and assistance) practiced in detailed pragmatic simulations. By the end of the one-semester course, the would-be writing center client is capable of confidently working with text, in the form of text analysis work (separating levels of abstraction) and communication moves analysis work, as well as more fine grained work with cohesion, readability, clarity and precision. As a result, a considerable portion of the wide range of advice that the writing center mentor might offer will not fall on deaf ears. 

Case study: Cmaps in academic writing

Asian EAP PhD students of academic writing for management.

KUT

5

Dimensions of Media Object

Compehensibility

Lawrie HunterKochi University of Technology

http://www.core.kochi-tech.ac.jp/hunter/

KUT

Island of Shikoku

Foreign PhD students 2003-2013

China 93Thailand 14Bangladesh 5

Vietnam 9Cambodia 3Mongolia 2Spain 2Czech 1India 1Indonesia 2Jordan 1Myanmar 1Nepal 1Niger 1Pakistan 1Sri Lanka 2Uzbekistan 1TOTAL 140

KUT EAP scenario

7

Since 2003: - Japanese government scholarships

- for foreign students - in technical doctoral programmes.

! Graduation requirements:

- 2+ refereed papers in top journals- dissertation in English

L2 studyduring the PhD programis NOT a realistic strategy.

KUT EAP scenario

What do writing centers DO?

-consultations

consultations

What do W.Ctr.clients WANT?

-mentoring-editing-rewriting-ghostwriting

What do W.Ctr.clients GET?

-1~2 hits @ 45 min -strategic advice

TypicalWCtr

clientneed

WCtrconsult

clientneed

WCtrconsult

clientfree

Whom do W.Ctrs.serve?

-typically, humanities

-typically, narrators

Can W.Ctrs.serve sci-tech?

-S-Ts want to be heard -S-Ts want strategies -S-Ts might want English

Writing centerconstraints

-money-time-client numbers

Today:What do W.Ctr. tutors want to say?

Today:What can W.Ctr. clients hear?

Typical W.Ctr.conundrums:

-no time -unprepared clients

Extreme case:KUT writing center

Extreme case:KUT writing center -enough time -enough money

in a perfect world..

in a perfect world..T: optimal learningC: optimal success

Clientprofile

TL reading-slow-persistent-compliant

L1 persuasion:-by repetition-by continuation-unsignalled

TL writing-jumbled-unsignalled-malsignalled

KUT

L1: first languageTL: target language

Clientstrategies

Argument construction-using L1 skills-using L1 knowledge

Writing:use model TL-for structure-for style-for cohesion-for logic-for proof

KUT

L1: first languageTL: target language

Extreme case:KUT writing center -maximize

client learning -maximize

client success

TypicalWCtr

clientneed

WCtrconsult

clientneed

WCtrconsult

clientfree

KUTWCtr

1-2semestersinstruction

researchsupervisor:

confirmcontent

TAW mentor:2-page bits,

multipleiterations

clientneed

What do KUT W.Ctr.clients NEED?

Audience AbstractnessRhetoric Document structure Register Summarization FAE Abstracts Rhetoric vs information Introductions

Conventions ReadabilityUsage Information structures Lexical units Voice Collocation Aspect Corpus Reference/antecedent Concordance Parallelism Style guides Nominalization

Subordinate clauses Accessibility Eliminating vagueness Information organization Eliminating ambiguity General-specific S-V separation SPSE S-V agreement Paragraph development Cohesion EthicalityReadability Avoiding plagiarism

Citation Purpose of writing Model language use Claim Paraphrasing Hedging Style Dossier Data commentary Conclusion writing SurvivalArgument Working with an editor RPaper structure Working with a mentor Communication moves 2-page system Moves in the intro section Discussion section moves

TAWneededknowledge(identifyproblems)

and

skills(evaluateand repair)

Clientneeds

accessiblewriting

soundargument

productionstrategy

readabletext

explicitcohesion

clarity logicalitymimicry,

conformityassistance

KUT writing centerinterventions

Clientneeds

accessiblewriting

soundargument

productionstrategy

readabletext

explicitcohesion

clarity logicalitymimicry,

conformityassistance

Intervention:instruction,exercises,low-text tools

Intervention:instruction,exercises,mapping

Intervention:instruction,exercises,simulations

Clientneeds

accessiblewriting

soundargument

productionstrategy

readabletext

explicitcohesion

Exercises: -topic/stress-S-V separation-old/new-pronoun reference-logical connectors

Exercises: -topic based cohesion-pronoun reference-logical connectorsTools:-cohesion charts

Clientneeds

accessiblewriting

soundargument

productionstrategy

clarity logicality

Exercises: -parallelism-nominalization-subordinate clauses-eliminating vagueness-eliminating ambiguity

Exercises: -claim and hedging-summarizing-data commentaryTools:Argument maps

Clientneeds

accessiblewriting

soundargument

productionstrategy

mimicry assistanceconformity

Exercises: -paraphrasing-concordance-citation-lexical unitsActivity:-dossier creation

Exercises: -register (FAE)-usageTools:-style guides-word lists

Activity:-self assessment-editor/mentor-coded feedback-communication

Case study

L1: first languageTL: target languageHW: homework tasks

HW feedback:-edit surface-critique structure-critique cohesion-critique argument

Instructorinterventions

Analytical work:-analyze model TL-summarize model TL

Construction work-cluster of concepts-find structure-create expression

grammar/surface features

usage/convention

document format

argumentsupporting claim

36

Possible EAP teaching approach

research design/resultsresearchers

start writinghere

grammar/surface features

usage/convention

document format

argumentsupporting claim

37

EAP teaching approach

research design/results

Mostwriting

instructionstarts here

KUTwriting

instructionstarts hereresearchers

start writinghere

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Lawrie HunterKochi University of Technology

lawriehunter.com